Netanyahu: No Palestinian state without recognition of Jewish Israel

Israel will not accept a Palestinian state unless the Palestinians recognise Israel as a Jewish state, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday.

Speaking at the start of the winter session of the Knesset, he said that Palestinians have to accept the implementation of long term security measures that enable Israel to defend itself.

“They [Palestinians] want to establish their state without affording security and peace for the state of Israel and without recognising it as a state for the Jewish people,” he said.

“A peace treaty will be possible with the following formula: A demilitarized Palestinian state that will recognize Israel. Experience shows us that if we give up on these demands and say ‘it’ll be okay’, nothing will be okay,” he said.

“In the past, the Palestinian issue was the gate for the relationship with Arabs,” he said, “but today things have changed and peace with the Arabs became the gate to the solution of the Palestinian issue. This is what we want to work on.”

During the speech, he reiterated Israel’s right to build settlements in Jerusalem considering it an Israeli city.

“The French build in Paris, the English build in London, the Israelis build in Jerusalem. Should we tell Jews not to live in Jerusalem because it will stir things up?” Netanyahu asked.

Opposition leader Isaac Herzog criticising Netanyahu’s 2015 budget.

God forbid, this scandalous budget is accepted, every citizen of Israel will be poorer, thanks to one person, Benjamin Netanyahu, who with his ambition to stay in power and lack of national responsibility brewed this shameful budget,” he said.

He went on to say that the budget will cost Netanyahu his position as prime minister.